J.J. Abrams Will Adapt Stephen King's 11/22/63 for Hulu

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot are officially set to adapt Stephen King's historical sci-fi novel, 11/22/63, into a series to be aired on Hulu. Friday Night Lights and Parenthood EP Bridget Carpenter will write and executive produce. It will supposedly be a nine episode-long event series, although we're sure that high ratings could convince Hulu to extend that order.

11/22/63 follows Jake Epping, a high school English teacher who discovers a portal that allows him to travel back to a specific time on a specific date in 1958. He decides to stay there for five years in order to prevent the Kennedy assassination, which he believes will then prevent the Vietnam War and the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, which will, in turn, save the world. When he (spoiler!) prevents the assassination and returns to the present, he discovers that the United States has been ravaged by nuclear holocaust.

"If I ever wrote a book that cries out for long-form, event TV programming, 11/22/63 is it," said King. This could be interpreted as a reference to Under the Dome, which is entering its third season, and for which many significant plot details were changed in order to improve the longevity of the premise.